18/V. 97.

I received this week, dear Mama, two letters of yours (from 20. IV and from the 24th) and I am replying to the latter with the first post, which leaves here this evening. Write me when a letter arrives from here, i.e., on what day. These letters traveled to me so long because they were forwarded from Krasnoyarsk here and a great deal of time was spent on this forwarding. As for finances—I don't remember that you asked me about it twice (as you write in the letter from 24. IV), or perhaps I forgot about it. While my finances were good, I didn't write. But before departing from Krasnoyarsk (around the 26th-28th) I sent a registered letter requesting a money transfer: now, probably, they are traveling from Krasnoyarsk here.37 Then I also wrote from here that for now two weeks' worth will suffice me here.

As for you coming here solely in order to obtain a transfer for me—that is really not worth it at all. In the first place, I myself will probably get permission for a transfer if I set about it. In the second place, the village of Tesinskoe is hardly better than Shushi.

According to all the preliminary information we gathered beforehand, Tes' is much worse than Shushi in respect of the locality, hunting, etc. In the third place, a journey here is not such a simple matter—I have already written about this and today am writing about it in greater detail to Manyasha, who is (jokingly) accusing me of "terrible inhospitality." From Tesi I have not yet received a letter38 and, knowing nothing about it, of course I will undertake nothing: perhaps they will still petition to be transferred somewhere else if Tes' should turn out to be as bad as we have heard about her.

Shu-shu-shu—not a bad village. True, it lies in a rather bare place, but not far off (1½-2 versts) there is a forest, though heavily logged. There is no passage to the Yenisei, but the Shush' river flows right by the village, and then a fairly large tributary of the Yenisei not far off (1-1½ versts), and there one will be able to bathe. On the horizon—the Sayan Mountains or their offshoots; some are completely white, and the snow on them hardly ever thaws. Thus, there is something in the way of picturesque quality, and it was not for nothing that I composed verses even in Krasnoyarsk: "In Shushe, at the foot of Sayan...," but unfortunately I composed nothing beyond the first line!

I am surprised that you write not a word about sending me the remaining books. Too bad if they have not yet been sent (I wrote about this long ago already from Krasnoyarsk*). Now just the steamboats ought to be reaching Minusa (the water is rising strongly), so that it would be easy to forward the package here. But then it will be difficult again, because the Yenisei creates a mass of shallows, and the high water won't last long. Perhaps, however, the books have already been sent?

* See this volume, p. 28. Ed.

As for my complaints that you write to me rarely—all that is ancient history now, and the matter is explained by the astonishing (to us, unfamiliar as we are with it) slowness in receiving replies to letters. I wrote this, I recall, a month or a month and a half ago: hence it referred to those letters which you were writing back at the end of March! But now I am receiving letters more frequently than before, and that letters would be lost—I do not think so, because then the loss would be revealed when the next letters arrived. Apparently, besides the first letter sent by Anyuta to the station, not a single letter has been lost. Here, in the village, one will have to apply oneself even more to correspondence, so it is better if letters from "Russia" come more often.

You write: "Anya says that the editorial office's reply she has already read." I did not quite understand this. Did she read the reply, or has the editorial office already managed to read it? Does Anya know any details about the dispute with the editorial office, about the war against it by the gold-mining entrepreneur and Co.? Has she not heard "the other side," i.e., someone from the editorial office?39 I will await her letter.

Have you taken out a newspaper subscription for me? I sit here without any newspapers. In Minusa it would also be necessary, for there is no reading room there.

My regards to Mark. He is providing no news at all of himself. I can report to him and Mita that hunting appears to be rather good here. Yesterday I rode some 12 versts and shot at both ducks and woodcock. There is plenty of game, but without a dog and moreover for such a poor shot as myself, hunting is rather difficult. There are even wild goats, and in the mountains and taiga (30-40 versts away, where the local peasants sometimes go hunting) there are squirrel, sable, bear, and deer.

I am sorry I did not take a waterproof raincoat. It is essential here. Will you not send me one in a small package? Otherwise I don't know when I will again get to the city, and even whether I will find anything suitable in such a town-village as Minusinsk. Perhaps, also (if there is money), I will ask Mark about the purchase of a good revolver: for now, however, I do not see any need for it.

Your V. U.

What is the news about Columbe?* I heard that he got married and that he is ill. Do you know anything about him?

Anatoly and Yulia have been put in prison again: they did not want to leave without waiting for the navigation season, and so the governor-general ordered that they wait in the fortress!! The steamboat to Yeniseisk was supposed to depart from Krasnoyarsk in the latter part of May.

To Manyasha
18/V. 97.

I received, Manyasha, your excerpts. Much merci for them. I hardly shall work through them in detail before autumn, because now I am occupied more with loafing and doing nothing.

Therefore, whether anything else will be needed and what exactly—for now I cannot say.

As for my "terrible inhospitality" I will dispute it with you. After all, before being "hospitable," i.e., receiving guests, one must first find out where one will live—and I did not know this when I was in Krasnoyarsk. One cannot call it knowledge when I hear and say: "Shu-shu-shu," but have no idea either of the route to this Shu-shu-shu, or of the locality, or of the conditions of life, etc. Then, before being hospitable, one must first convince oneself that guests will be able to reach here and be accommodated—I won't say comfortably, but at least tolerably. And I could not say this until the very last moment, i.e., until about mid-May. But your probably read my letter already in June.

That means the better half of the summer will be spent on mere inquiries and preparations! Is that reasonable? That a journey here is rather troublesome and not very pleasant, you have surely already seen from my letter with a description of the route on horseback. It's fortunate that the weather was splendid—and if there had been rain. The weather here is extremely changeable. There I went hunting yesterday; in the morning the weather was lovely, the day was quite hot, summer-like. In the evening suddenly a terribly cold wind rose up and rain to boot. We arrived all covered in mud and, had it not been for our fur coats—we would have frozen on the way. The inhabitants say that in Siberia such occurrences are not rare even in summer, so that people take fur clothing with them even in summer when they go anywhere*. Until one settles in and looks around—one does not invite guests.

In any case, if it should come about that someone would come here sometime—it is necessary to send beforehand a telegram from Minusa saying that the steamboats reach the city and that the navigation season has become established. Otherwise there is always a possibility of such a mishap as a steamboat running aground halfway. The Yenisei has a mass of rapids and shallows, so that navigation to Minusinsk itself lasts very briefly, and one must "catch" it. Even now I do not know for certain whether steamboats reach Minusa: I think they do, on the grounds that the water is rising very strongly.

By the way, as for telegrams. Our (volost') "postman" is in Minusa on Thursdays and Mondays (the days of mail arrival in Minusa). Therefore, if one should send a telegram, it is most convenient to send it on Wednesday and Sunday, i.e., so that in Minusinsk it arrives in the morning on Thursday and Monday. Then I will receive it in the morning on Tuesday or Friday. Of course, one can send it with a special courier on another day, but this is much more expensive and only for the most urgent cases.

I am generally very surprised that you are reluctant to go abroad. Is it really more interesting to sit in a little village near Moscow?? And if you are to go to Moscow to take music lessons, then surely you could also go to a nearby town there? I think, however, that you will be reading this letter somewhere abroad by now.

I shake your hand. Your V. U.

Send me all sorts of catalogs, especially of antiquarian booksellers and especially foreign ones.

in the journal

* I am thinking of acquiring a half-coat for hunting trips.

TO M. A. ULYANOVA AND A. I. ULYANOVA-ELIZAROVA

Sent from v. Shushenskoe to Moscow

First published in 1929

"Proletarskaya Revolutsiya" No. 2-3

Printed from the manuscript